UFC on FUEL TV 9 results: Adlan Amagov kicks his way past Chris Spang

STOCKHOLM – Adlan Amagov never really gave Chris Spang much of a chance.

The Russian worked in a potent mix of kicks to the body, kicks to the head, knees galore and takedowns en route to a dominant unanimous decision win in his UFC debut.

The welterweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC on FUEL TV 9 event at Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm. It streamed on Facebook ahead of a main card on FUEL TV.

Both fighters looked for early kicks, and Amagov missed a spinning kick 45 seconds in that got Spang’s attention. But when Spang came forward, Amagov landed a sideways kick to the body that put Spang briefly on his backside. It was Amagov’s step-in leg kicks that kept scoring for him in the first, and he got a takedown with a few seconds left in the frame for good measure.

Amagov went into ninja mode with a pair of spinning wheel kicks that missed early in the second. But Spang used that to put some pressure on for a moment. But Amagov landed a kick to the head that was partially blocked and used that for a takedown seconds later. Spang returned to his feet, but an inside trip from Amagov kept him on top controlling the fight on the ground.

Spang looked to come out aggressively in the third. He backed Amagov up with an uppercut and kept the Russian moving mostly backward early on, forcing him to kick from there instead of kicking going forward. A spinning elbow from Spang midway through the third was close, but Amagov calmly circled away.

Soon after, Amagov landed a takedown and held on to the Swede looking to keep taking him down when he popped back to his feet. Amagov landed knees to the body and thighs while keeping Spang tied up and rode out the fight kneeing and kicking him before landing a suplex to put a cap on a decisive UFC debut over his fellow Strikeforce crossover fighter.

“First of all, I am every happy I won,” Amagov said. “I was a little nervous as it was my debut in UFC and I was more cautious than usual. I wanted to prove myself. I represent the people of Chechnya and I wanted to make them proud.”

“I am really disappointed to lose in my hometown,” Spang said. “I wanted to go in and leave everything in the octagon, and that didn’t happen.”

Amagov (12-2-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) now has won two straight and six of his past seven fights. Spang (5-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) heads back to the loss column after a win this past May in Strikeforce and has dropped two of his past three.

The Latest

In this week’s Trading Shots, Danny Downes and Ben Fowlkes look at Ronda Rousey’s 34-second victory over Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and try to put it into terms that capture the moment without getting swept away by it.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?